How to troubleshoot “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered”, ATIKMDAG.sys type errors

Article Number:
27116

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​​This article provides information on the possible causes an ATIKMDAG.sys type error may occur and how to troubleshoot the system to prevent the error from reoccurring.

Issue Description:

During startup or use of an application, (most commonly a game / video application) the system or application will freeze, crash or exit to the desktop / a blue screen (BSOD). Additionally, an error message appears stating that the “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” and may reference one of the following driver files:

ATIKMDAG.sys

ATI2DVAG.sys

ATI2CQAG.dll

ATIVPK.sys

AMD2DVAG.sys

AMDKMDAG.sys

AMDVPK.sys

Issue Cause:

The issue occurs when the Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) feature available in Windows Vista® and Windows 7 detects that the graphics card (GPU) has not responded within a predetermined period of time and reinitializes it with the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) to prevent the need to reboot. There is no single cause for a TDR event to be triggered.